Classification of man and women home based travel behavionrs at bus to bus transits in Colombo

Abstract

Men and women travel behaviours are different during the joumev to work from their home. Men travel more length of travel and tend to work more days in a week than that of women. Study on men and women travellers’ behaviour at transit is important since it reveals the demand of passenger attraction and generation of bus travels, the nature of transit travels that it tempoial or permanent, directions of travel demands start from and to end. purposes of travel, modes of travel to reach the transit and to leave, and choice of the travel These details can be used for bus route planning and scheduling works. routes etc. The study conducted at selected bus passenger transit towns in Colombo Metropolitan Area (CMA). These are categorized in to three transport zones such as; Zone 1: Colombo city limits area, Zone 2: Colombo peripheral area, and Zone 3: Colombo suburban area with considering the number of plying bus routes per square km of area. At each bus to bus transit location, bus traveller boarding counts were collected for 12-hour bus operational period in a day and simultaneously, travel behaviour data was collected by interviewing randomly a bus traveller who waited for a travel at transit during the survey period. The random sample was represented at 95% level of confidence and the bus traveller age varies between 20 and 50 years. It was assumed that this category of age represents a majority of employed bus travellers in the study area. The survey revealed that about 0.75 million of transit bus travellers travels daily in CMA. Of them, 53 % of travellers reach to a transit location by bus, ->8% by walking and the balance by a vehicle. The travel origins observed that on average 46% of travellers start journey from home, 26% from work place, 11% from a social event, 10% from school and 7% from Business. The travel destinations observed that on average 43% of passengers’ travel to home, 28% to work place, 13% to a social event, 7% to school and 9% to Business. It also revealed that 65% of bus travellers create Home Based Worked Trips (HBWT): of them; 69% of men and 31% of women, and 35% of bus travellers create Non-Home Based Worked Trips (NHBWT): of them, 55% of men and 45% of women. Finally, it is concluded that men create 21% more bus transit trips per day on their way to work place than that of women in Colombo Metropolitan Area.